4,074 research outputs found
Large inverse tunneling magnetoresistance in CoCrFeAl/MgO/CoFe magnetic tunnel junctions
Magnetic tunnel junctions with the layer sequence
CoCrFeAl/MgO/CoFe were fabricated by magnetron sputtering
at room temperature (RT). The samples exhibit a large inverse tunneling
magnetoresistance (TMR) effect of up to -66% at RT. The largest value of -84%
at 20 K reflects a rather weak influence of temperature. The dependence on the
voltage drop shows an unusual behavior with two almost symmetric peaks at
mV with large inverse TMR ratios and small positive values around zero
bias
Exact real-time dynamics of the quantum Rabi model
We use the analytical solution of the quantum Rabi model to obtain absolutely
convergent series expressions of the exact eigenstates and their scalar
products with Fock states. This enables us to calculate the numerically exact
time evolution of and for all regimes of the
coupling strength, without truncation of the Hilbert space. We find a
qualitatively different behavior of both observables which can be related to
their representations in the invariant parity subspaces.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures, published versio
Structural and magneto-transport characterization of Co_2Cr_xFe_(1-x)Al Heusler alloy films
We investigate the structure and magneto-transport properties of thin films
of the Co_2Cr_xFe_(1-x)Al full-Heusler compound, which is predicted to be a
half-metal by first-principles theoretical calculations. Thin films are
deposited by magnetron sputtering at room temperature on various substrates in
order to tune the growth from polycrystalline on thermally oxidized Si
substrates to highly textured and even epitaxial on MgO(001) substrates,
respectively. Our Heusler films are magnetically very soft and ferromagnetic
with Curie temperatures up to 630 K. The total magnetic moment is reduced
compared to the theoretical bulk value, but still comparable to values reported
for films grown at elevated temperature. Polycrystalline Heusler films combined
with MgO barriers are incorporated into magnetic tunnel junctions and yield 37%
magnetoresistance at room temperature
A grid of polarization models for Rayleigh scattering planetary atmospheres
We investigate the intensity and polarization of reflected light from
planetary atmospheres. We present a large grid of Monte Carlo simulations for
planets with Rayleigh scattering atmospheres. We discuss the disk-integrated
polarization for phase angles typical of extrasolar planet observations and for
the limb polarization effect observable for solar system objects near
opposition. The main parameters investigated are single scattering albedo,
optical depth of the scattering layer, and albedo of an underlying Lambert
surface for a homogeneous Rayleigh scattering atmosphere. We also investigate
atmospheres with isotropic scattering and forward scattering aerosol particles,
as well as models with two scattering layers.
The model grid provides a tool for extracting quantitative results from
polarimetric measurements of planetary atmospheres from solar system planets
and extrasolar planets, in particular on the scattering properties and
stratification of particles in the highest atmosphere layers.
Spectropolarimetry of solar system planets offers complementary information to
spectroscopy and polarization flux colors can be used for a first
characterization of exoplanet atmospheres. From limb polarization measurements,
one can set constraints on the polarization at large phase angles.Comment: 19 pages, 21 figures. Minor changes. Published in Astronomy and
Astrophysic
High dissimilarity within a multiyear annual record of pollen assemblages from a North American tallgrass prairie
Citation: Commerford, J. L., McLauchlan, K. K., & Minckley, T. A. (2016). High dissimilarity within a multiyear annual record of pollen assemblages from a North American tallgrass prairie. Ecology and Evolution, 6(15), 5273-5289. doi:10.1002/ece3.2259Grassland vegetation varies in composition across North America and has been historically influenced by multiple biotic and abiotic drivers, including fire, herbivory, and topography. Yet, the amount of temporal and spatial variability exhibited among grassland pollen assemblages, and the influence of these biotic and abiotic drivers on pollen assemblage composition and diversity has been relatively understudied. Here, we examine 4 years of modern pollen assemblages collected from a series of 28 traps at the Konza Prairie Long-Term Ecological Research Area in the Flint Hills of Kansas, with the aim of evaluating the influence of these drivers, as well as quantifying the amount of spatial and temporal variability in the pollen signatures of the tallgrass prairie biome. We include all terrestrial pollen taxa in our analyses while calculating four summative metrics of pollen diversity and composition -beta-diversity, Shannon index, nonarboreal pollen percentage, and Ambrosia: Artemisia -and find different roles of fire, herbivory, and topography variables in relation to these pollen metrics. In addition, we find significant annual differences in the means of three of these metrics, particularly the year 2013 which experienced high precipitation relative to the other 3 years of data. To quantify spatial and temporal dissimilarity among the samples over the 4-year study, we calculate pairwise squared-chord distances (SCD). The SCD values indicate higher compositional dissimilarity across the traps (0.38 mean) among all years than within a single trap from year to year (0.31 mean), suggesting that grassland vegetation can have different pollen signatures across finely sampled space and time, and emphasizing the need for additional long-term annual monitoring of grassland pollen
Parkinson disease analysis using supervised and unsupervised techniques
Parkinson’s disease is classified as a disease of neurological origin, which is degenerative and chronic. Currently, the number of people affected by this disease has increased, one in 100 people over 60 years old, although it has been shown that the onset of this disease is approximately 60 years of age. Cases have also been identified of this disorder in patients as young as 18 years old suffer from this disease. Many tests have been developed throughout the literary review in order to identify patients tending to suffer from this disease that currently massifies its prevalence in the world. This article shows the implementation of different machine learning techniques such as LWL, ThresholdSelector, Kstar, VotedPercepton, CVParameterSelection, based on a test performed on experimental individuals and controls in order to identify the presence of the disease
Chronic, low-dose rotenone reproduces Lewy neurites found in early stages of Parkinson's disease, reduces mitochondrial movement and slowly kills differentiated SH-SY5Y neural cells
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Parkinson's disease, the most common adult neurodegenerative movement disorder, demonstrates a brain-wide pathology that begins pre-clinically with alpha-synuclein aggregates ("Lewy neurites") in processes of gut enteric and vagal motor neurons. Rostral progression into substantia nigra with death of dopamine neurons produces the motor impairment phenotype that yields a clinical diagnosis. The vast majority of Parkinson's disease occurs sporadically, and current models of sporadic Parkinson's disease (sPD) can utilize directly infused or systemic neurotoxins.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We developed a differentiation protocol for human SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma that yielded non-dividing dopaminergic neural cells with long processes that we then exposed to 50 nM rotenone, a complex I inhibitor used in Parkinson's disease models. After 21 days of rotenone, ~60% of cells died. Their processes retracted and accumulated ASYN-(+) and UB-(+) aggregates that blocked organelle transport. Mitochondrial movement velocities were reduced by 8 days of rotenone and continued to decline over time. No cytoplasmic inclusions resembling Lewy bodies were observed. Gene microarray analyses showed that the majority of genes were under-expressed. qPCR analyses of 11 mtDNA-encoded and 10 nDNA-encoded mitochondrial electron transport chain RNAs' relative expressions revealed small increases in mtDNA-encoded genes and lesser regulation of nDNA-encoded ETC genes.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Subacute rotenone treatment of differentiated SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells causes process retraction and partial death over several weeks, slowed mitochondrial movement in processes and appears to reproduce the Lewy neuritic changes of early Parkinson's disease pathology but does not cause Lewy body inclusions. The overall pattern of transcriptional regulation is gene under-expression with minimal regulation of ETC genes in spite of rotenone's being a complex I toxin. This rotenone-SH-SY5Y model in a differentiated human neural cell mimics changes of early Parkinson's disease and may be useful for screening therapeutics for neuroprotection in that disease stage.</p
Non-Markovian dynamics in a spin star system: The failure of thermalization
In most cases, a small system weakly interacting with a thermal bath will
finally reach the thermal state with the temperature of the bath. We show that
this intuitive picture is not always true by a spin star model where non-Markov
effect predominates in the whole dynamical process. The spin star system
consists a central spin homogeneously interacting with an ensemble of identical
noninteracting spins. We find that the correlation time of the bath is
infinite, which implies that the bath has a perfect memory, and that the
dynamical evolution of the central spin must be non- Markovian. A direct
consequence is that the final state of the central spin is not the thermal
state equilibrium with the bath, but a steady state which depends on its
initial state.Comment: 8 page
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